by Bianca D’Arc
Then, the rider started waving his hands in the air. This didn’t look good. No, it didn’t look good, at all. The rider drew back both hands, and an evil-looking red fireball formed between his palms. Dark red fire. Not healthy orange or yellow, or even blue, but deep blood red.
“Skelaroth! Beware!” Rivka shouted a mental warning, but it was too late. Even as she moved in and gathered her own flame, she knew she would be too late.
The mage—for that was what the man on the horse must be—loosed the evil fire at Skelaroth, hitting him squarely in the center of his right wing. The sea dragon screamed and plummeted like a comet toward the east, smoke leaving a trail in the sky behind him.
Rivka roared and prevented the sorcerer from loosing another shot. She breathed flame on the man and his horse from above, but much to her dismay, it flowed around him and his beast, as if there was a bubble of protection surrounding him. She could not touch him with her fire, but she knew, from what had just happened to Skelaroth, that she was in danger from the mage’s evil red flame.
She winged away as fast as she could, heading east, following Skelaroth’s trail. She spared a look behind her to see the pirates regrouping and speeding off to the northwest as fast as their terrified mounts would take them. Last in the line of fleeing pirates was the sorcerer. He was acting as their rear guard, and the expression on his pugnacious face told Rivka that he felt triumphant at bringing down the mighty sea dragon.
Enjoy it while you can, she thought. Your victory will not last long. This, I vow.
*
Liam had watched carefully over the ridge of Skelaroth’s neck, hoping to spot Fisk as the sea dragon had made a majestic dive toward their quarry. It had been unlike anything Liam had ever experienced. Even being on the ocean during the wildest gale could not compare with swooping down out of the clouds on a dragon’s back. For one brief shining moment, Liam met Fisk’s gaze and then…
Havoc. Chaos. Tumbling and the smell of scorched dragon scales. Liam held tight as Skelaroth was hit by…something…and plunged like a meteor across the sky, leaving a smoke trail behind him.
“Skelaroth!” he shouted, to no avail. The dragon’s wings were out, but it was clear from a single glance that one of them had been badly damaged. Skelaroth was out of control, gliding all too quickly to an uncontrolled landing. This was going to hurt.
Ella was peering out of her nest, and Liam opened the flap, reaching down for her with one hand. “Get yourself clear if you can, sweetheart,” he told her, tossing her as far as he could from the dragon. He watched for a moment to make sure she got her wings under her and she was away safely. At least she wouldn’t get hurt by what was about to happen. The ground was rushing up at him too fast. Too close.
Trying his best to mitigate the damage, Liam jumped off the dragon’s back when he judged he was about fifteen feet off the ground. With a bit of luck, he thought he might tumble clear of Skelaroth’s untidy collapse. Many years spent at sea had given Liam a nimbleness that most men never learned, and he was able to roll with the landing, jumping up unhurt, if a bit sore in the places that had come into hard contact with the ground.
Skelaroth was not so fortunate. The dragon was down. Smoke rising from his wing, which was tattered in places. Raw and bleeding. And, worst of all, Skelaroth looked unconscious. Liam ran to the dragon’s head and called to him, looking for signs of life. He was alive, but he had been knocked for a loop by something.
Ella landed on top of one of the horns adorning Skelaroth’s scaled head. She looked concerned, and Liam worried that she might expend too much of her own energy if she tried to heal the giant dragon. He was about to say something to the virkin when Rivka landed with a gust of wind from her shiny black wings.
She shifted shape as she moved, walking up beside him on two human legs. She knelt at Skelaroth’s side, next to Liam.
“Has he roused at all?” she asked, sounding worried.
“No,” Liam had to report. “What should we do?” If anyone knew how to deal with an injured dragon, it would be Rivka.
She seemed to take stock for a moment before deciding on a course of action. “Right.” Rivka nodded. “The first thing is to straighten out his wings and make him as comfortable as possible. It’ll be easier to do that before he wakes up.”
Liam stood as she did, and they set to work together, untangling the untidy heap of the most injured wing first. Skelaroth had come down in a large clearing, thankfully, where there was enough room to stretch him out. Rivka shifted back to her dragon form when they started working on Skelaroth’s other side, needing the greater strength of that shape to roll Skelaroth’s bulk off the wing so they could stretch it out.
The left wing was mostly unharmed. It was the right one that had a hole punched through the delicate membrane of skin and scales. Liam looked at it and wondered if the mighty sea dragon would ever fly right again.
“It looks worse than it is,” Rivka said quietly, into his mind. “Once he wakes up, we’ll be able to do something about it.”
“What can I do to help?” he asked.
“Make camp. He’s not going anywhere tonight, and we’re far from the pirates. Let’s get us all as comfortable as we can possibly get, and then, we’ll go from there.”
He liked the sound of her plan and quickly set about following her very sensible suggestion. Rivka lay down next to Skelaroth’s head, keeping watch over him. Ella perched on one of the horns on his head. That left Liam to set up the tent and make a fire pit. He had the bags with most of their provisions on him, so it wasn’t hard to get things set up.
“Do you want dinner?” Liam asked of Rivka, who hadn’t moved from Skelaroth’s side or changed to her human form.
“No, thanks. I’m going to stay like this until he wakes up. There’s something that will help that I can only show him in this form.”
“Aren’t you hungry?” Liam insisted. “I could hunt for something for you.”
“You’re very kind, but dragons can go several days without eating. When I’m in this form, I’m a lot less fragile than when I wear my human skin.” She moved a little, resettling her head on her foreleg. “In fact, you take the tent tonight. I’ll be fine here, with the big guy.”
“Any idea when he might wake?” Liam asked, trying not to worry, though Skelaroth didn’t look good at all.
“I’m not sure, but I’m hoping it’s soon,” Rivka replied.
“Soon,” Ella echoed. “Be soon.”
Both Liam and Rivka looked at the little virkin, perched on one of the horns on Skelaroth’s head. Liam went over to her.
“Do you know something, sweetheart?” he asked the virkin gently.
She fluttered her wings and gave him what looked a bit like a smile. “Know lots of things!” she said happily. “But know most that Skel will wake soon. Big headache. Big ouch.”
Sure enough, a few minutes later, Skelaroth stirred. He opened first one eye, then the other, but did not move. Rivka was right there, at his side, and Liam was on the other.
“How do you feel?” Liam asked gently.
“Awful,” Skelaroth replied.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“Do you know how to summon the dragon’s breath?” Rivka asked Skelaroth in a quiet tone. She deliberately included Liam and Ella in her thoughts. She wanted them to know what was about to happen, if she could get Skelaroth to participate in his own healing, because it would affect everyone around him.
“I have heard tales, only,” Skelaroth replied. “It is not something we use under the waves.”
“I suppose that makes sense,” she had to allow. “It’s not hard. I will show you the way, and if you can manifest your own magic, it should go a long way toward healing the damage to your wing.”
“You think so?” he asked, sounding very tired and not very confident.
“I know so,” she told him, wanting to imbue him with certainty. He had to believe he would fly again, or it might never happen. Skelaroth simply had to part
icipate in his own restoration. “Can you feel the magic gathering around me?” she asked, beginning to call the magic that was every dragon’s right.
“I sense it,” Skelaroth said, a tiny spark of interest in his tone. Good.
“Can you do the same?”
“I…” Skelaroth seemed to struggle for a moment, then she felt his magic rise—and it was mighty. This could work even better than she’d hoped. “I think I have it,” he said, speaking more easily as a fog rose all around them.
If she’d been in her human form, Rivka would have smiled. “I believe you do,” she said softly, so as not to interrupt the large dragon. “Now, focus that energy on the things that hurt most. Let the fog envelope you and make you whole.”
Rivka sent a private word to Liam, who had rather sensibly retreated to the tent area. “This will go on for some time, and it may affect you and Ella, as well. Don’t be alarmed. This is pure, strong and good magic. It cannot harm you, though it may cause unexpected reactions.”
“That sounds ominous,” Liam said quietly, his words just reaching her dragonish ears. She had to chuckle, sending smoke rings up through the fog that was growing dense and potent around the sea dragon and their camp.
“Never fear. It will be fine. You’ll see,” she reassured him before turning her attention back to Skelaroth.
Having summoned the dragon’s breath, Skelaroth had begun directing it as she had suggested. His right wing had taken the most damage, so she moved closer to it to keep an eye on his progress. The dragon’s breath manifested as a grayish fog that billowed and wove mystical patterns around the dragon’s wing and through the air. Into this healing smoke, the virkin flew.
Rivka’s first impulse was to chase the small creature away, but she stopped herself from doing so, remembering Ella’s amazing healing ability in the town of Waymeet. Ella’s magic was many-colored and sparkling against the grayish fog. She flew into the patterns of healing and wove her own magic into them, making them stronger and much more potent. Rivka had never seen anything like it. The virkin continued to surprise her with its instinctive abilities and incredibly generous heart.
With Ella’s help, the healing was progressing at a record pace. What Rivka had assumed would take several days of treatment was occurring in just minutes as Ella seemed to weave the missing flesh into being, out of the magical fog. It didn’t seem possible, yet it was happening right before her eyes.
The magical fog was having an effect on Rivka, as well. It renewed her. Reenergized her. It made her a little horny, too. Rivka tried to be philosophical about it. The effect of the dragon’s breath was often arousing to those who were not badly injured. Perhaps Liam was feeling some of its effects, as well. If so, maybe they could ease each other’s bodies as they had the night before. Even with the magical healing, Skelaroth would not be flying this night. He would be weary after expending so much of his magic. He would require sleep, possibly well into the next day, or even days. There was just no way to predict how long it would take him to sleep it off.
Deciding to limit her own exposure, Rivka changed back into her smaller human form. It was Skelaroth who needed the healing vapors the most. She would not interfere with his getting the most benefit he could by staying in her larger guise. Ella dipped and dove, winding her own magics in among the gray mist that was Skelaroth’s. At length, she began a more circuitous dance, flying the length of the sea dragon’s long body, pausing for an aerial pirouette around his head before coming to a landing again, on one of his horns, which seemed to have become her favorite perch.
“You can let the mist dissipate now,” Rivka crooned to Skelaroth, standing close to his head. “The majority of the work is done. You can rest easy, my friend. You’ve done well.”
Skelaroth gave her a sleepy eye-blink before his head lolled slightly and he was asleep. Rivka stepped closer to look at Ella.
“Are you all right?” she asked the virkin. “You did very well, too, Mistress. You are full of surprises, aren’t you?” Rivka reached out her hand, and Ella leaned into it, accepting a scratch behind her ears with a weary virkinish smile.
“Skel needed help,” Ella said quietly. “I help.”
“Yes, you did. You helped him very well. Thank you,” Rivka praised the small creature. “Can I get you anything? Are you hungry? Thirsty?”
“Need sleep,” Ella said, shaking her head slowly.
“Do you want me to carry you to the satchel where Liam made your nest?”
Ella shook her head. “Sleep here. Near Skel.”
Rivka nodded slowly. “If that is your wish. Do you want a scarf or something to keep you warm?”
“Am warm,” she claimed, her eyes blinking sleepily. “Night.” And then, the little virkin joined Skelaroth in slumber, still perched on one of the horns on his head.
With both non-humans asleep, that just left Rivka and the captain…and a growing, aching need inside her. Would he welcome her into his bed again, or had that just been a one-time thing? She turned to find him watching her with half-lidded eyes. His expression spoke of intimacies. Of sex.
Hallelujah!
Liam felt strange. Energized. Vigorous. Horny.
He’d never experienced the kind of fog that had quickly risen to envelop their camp. He knew it was magical in nature. Something benevolent and emanating from the dragons, but he wasn’t sure exactly what it was. Only that it made him yearn for more of the physical intimacy he’d shared with Rivka the night before.
While last night had been incredible, it was also something he hadn’t thought would ever be repeated. He’d come to terms with the idea that he had been alone a long time. Giving in to the attraction between himself and Rivka had almost been inevitable. When he’d had time to think about it today, he’d forgiven himself for being human.
That forgiveness had come a lot easier than he had expected. In years past, when he had even looked at another woman, he’d felt guilty for days. Even weeks. Perhaps the easy acceptance of his own human frailty meant something deeper. Either time was finally healing the soul-deep hurts he had suffered when he lost Olivia or he was becoming more accepting of his own situation. Probably, a bit of both.
A third possibility occurred to him, but it was almost too much to comprehend. That was the very tricky proposition that somehow, his involvement with Rivka was meant to be. Preordained. Destiny.
He didn’t really see that as a major cause for his transgressions in the dark of the night, but it was a possibility that had flickered through his mind. Some of the cultures he had visited in the east believed greatly in fate. Ella came from such a place, where magic still existed and the hand of the divine was expected to be found regularly interfering in the affairs of men.
As Rivka walked toward him, out of the wispy fog, she immediately captured every bit of his attention. She was a woman warrior who would not be trifled with. She was a delectable female who had once shared her bed with him, and if the heavens were smiling on him, she would do so again…right now.
He didn’t bother thinking about right or wrong. Any thought of his deceased wife was wiped right out of his mind by the magic and the desirable woman stalking closer. He knew she was his prey, but he was a willing sacrifice to whatever she had in mind. He was hers to command.
So much different than the way he’d been with Olivia, his interactions with Rivka were in a class by themselves. She made him feel able to put down the mantle of protector. Not to give it up completely, but to share it with a woman for the first time he could ever remember.
She was just so capable. So fierce. So magical. She inspired confidence, and desire, with every step she took.
“I hope you don’t mind,” she said in a sexy, soft voice, the healing fog blanketing them in their own mysterious world as she walked up to him. “I think I mentioned that the dragon’s breath could have…um…side effects.”
She stepped close and aligned her hips with his. He was already hard. Wanting. She smiled.
“
There are all sorts of lascivious rumors about what knights get up to in their Lairs. Is this why?” Liam firmly refused to think of his only daughter and her two knight mates, but the rumors about Lair life were widespread and had been as long as he’d been alive.
Rivka’s head tilted to one side as if considering. “I’m not a Lair dragon, so I can’t say for sure. What I can confirm is that we dragons have a powerful drive, and when that drive is triggered, there is little that will keep us from seeking pleasure. Fortunately, the desire isn’t triggered all that often. For Lair dragons, only the presence of the dragon’s true mate will bring on the urge and then, only if the knights are aligned and have found their own mate. It is widely believed that the Mother of All takes a hand in bringing the right parties together, but,” she shrugged, “I’ve never spent much time among dragons in this land, so I don’t know that for certain.”
Liam tucked all that new information away in his mind for later consideration. Right now, he had a woman rubbing up against him, and his body was feeling those urges she’d described. He put his arms around her waist and drew her closer against him. She cooperated by looping her hands around his neck and pulling him down into a tempestuous kiss.
She strained against him, and he against her, while their tongues dueled in the most delicious way. She was fire in his arms. The smoky fog that he’d just learned both healed and aroused—Rivka was part of it, and it was part of her. Resistance would have been futile if he’d even thought to resist.
He took her in his arms and carried her to the tent. There was little time to waste. His body was ready, and hers was, as well, if he was any judge of her reactions. After last night, he’d learned pretty thoroughly what aroused her. He would put that new knowledge to good use, but first, he wanted her comfortable. Once he got inside her, he didn’t plan to leave in a hurry. In fact, if he stayed within her welcoming depths for the rest of the night, he would be a very happy man, indeed.
